Peregrine Falcons first nested on Derby's Cathedral, England, in 2006. Our Peregrine Project is now run by a partnership between Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, Derby City Council, Derby Cathedral and the Cathedral Quarter. Here is what's happening in 2017. . .

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Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Communicating with the Birds (and screen-printing help)

It's National Science Week this week, with the theme of communication. So Derby Museums gave a special lunchtime lecture today, looking at how we have been reaching audiences with our use of new technology. Afterwards we went to Cathedral Green for a bit of peregrine-spotting. where we all counted ourselves immensely fortunate to be able to see our two birds mating briefly on top of the highest point of the tower.

A photographer from the Derby Telegraph came along, though from Craig's picture below it does looks more like we were interested in checking out his dandruff than looking for peregrines! Perhaps someone here can suggest a better caption than the one below. (If so, we'll replace it.)

Whilst watching the webcams you notice something happening and you want to capture it and share it on Flickr. The process is simple and doesn’t take long so here’s how to do it:

The Print Screen button is at the top right of the keyboard.

So, with Internet Explorer open, view the web cams. Make sure the screen is un-obscured by either your mouse cursor or any other programme. Pressing the Print Screen button takes a snapshot of everything you are viewing on your monitor. Pressing the button doesn’t save it to a picture file. You have to do that manually.

So, you now have your image in the memory of the computer waiting for you to do something with it. The best programme for putting that picture in is Paint. This can be located under your Window’s Start Menu, Programs, Accessories. If you are using an up to date Windows operating system, e.g. XP, you may not initially see Paint there. You may need to press on the two downward facing arrows to expand what you see.

With Paint now open you can put your printed screen into it. Press the “Edit” option at the top of the screen and then press “Paste”.

Unfortunately you have the whole of your computer screen on your screenshot and that’s probably not what you want. So now you need to remove all the unnecessary information. Using the scroll bars on the side of the Paint programme to move them so that you can see clearly and wholly your new screenshot webcam. You will see at the side of Paint (this may be different for older versions of the programme) your editing options. At the top is a dotted square button, holding your mouse over that button it will select it if you press the button. This then allows you to select the area of your screenshot which you want to do something with.

From the top corner of your print screened web camera press and hold the left hand mouse button. Drag the mouse down to the bottom opposite corner of the camera and release the mouse button. With the box now around the area that you want go up to the “Edit” option and press “Cut”. The picture seems to vanish but, just like the screenshot, it’s been saved into the computer memory again waiting for you to do something with it. To do this press on the “File” button, then “New”. The computer will ask you a question of do you want to save your work... press “No”. You now have a completely empty Paint screen. Go back to “Edit” and press “Paste”.

You now have your picture of the web camera in a nice simple looking picture. Save it by pressing “File”, “Save” . It will ask you to give the work a title and a location of where to save it. Naming is simple, what the birds are doing – e.g. feeding, call it Feeding Peregrine1. As for location, I prefer to place it on the desktop, makes it easier to find.

Now open up Flickr and sign in to your normal account. You will see on the right hand side of the website is “Upload Photos & Videos”. Pressing that it takes you to another screen. In the centre is a gray box with steps, starting at step 1. Pressing ‘Choose Photo and Video’ will bring up a box asking you to locate the picture. You know where it is (on your desktop) and what it’s called( “Feeding Peregrine 1”). It gives you the option to add more if you want, otherwise press Upload Photos and Videos. It will then upload it to the site. This doesn’t mean it removes it from your computer, merely copies it. Next give it a description (title) and press Save.

To put that picture in the Derby Cathedral Peregrine picture pool simply go to it and you will see an ‘Add photo link’ above the pictures. Pressing that takes you to all the pictures you have taken, including the one you just saved. Press on that picture and press ‘Add To Group’. Job done.
Thanks to Craig for these helpful instructions which we have edited down a touch to save space. Let us know if you can't follow or understand anything - or if you can!

Pitty this has to be on a Wednesday and at short notice. I may consider it, would you say it's worth the trip?

I'm confused as to the name of it, "Communicating with the Birds", as there isn't any actual communication with the animals. Having a few thoughts of what I may have consider I have come up with:

- Communicating via the Birds- Communicating: Wild Technology- Communciating: Birds and their Audience- Communicating to a new Audience

I'm not an imaginative person. But anyway, it's done now.

You mentioned the mating, last year the first post of someone seeing it was the 15th March, by AnnieF. Perhaps they've started and decided to keep it off camera this year. Perhaps booked themselves into the hotel (no booking required of course).

Now that I know you're coming, I'm not so sure I want to go ahead with my talk! (. . .only kidding).

I can't tell you whether it'll be worth it - especially as I've yet to put the talk together. But I do aim to be talking more about how and why we wired up the webcams and how we've used social media to connect and communicate with people (using the peregrines as the main example), rather than talking about the birds' biology for its own sake. I do that in other, longer evening lectures.

Now, I should advise you that Derby Museum is in a state of flux right now, with building works still going on and a number of galleries closed, though we have just opened four Format photography exhibitions in various spaces. It'll possibly be your last chance for a year to visit The Silk Mill Museum, and I will be happy to chat over a steaming hot telescope whilst watching the peregrines on the Cathedral Green. (The earliest we've recorded mating has been 8th March in 2009 but also 11th 12th March in 2008. Of necessity, lunchtime talks are shorter than evening lectures, but it'd be a pleasure to meet you if you do decide to book a place and come over. (We can only accommodate about 20 people in the meeting room, I'm afraid).

There is a map on the left side of our blog with the museum and Cathedral Green marked. Car Park users could use Chapel Street car park, and it's a brisk 15 minute walk from the train station to the Museum.

15.45 Tiercel on the tower with food, something white, dove, pigeon maybe. Falcon is sitting on the scrape edge. Good view of his beak, with the Holiday Inn's white background it shows off the beak quite nicely.

15.32 Falcon took the food down to the scrape and both Falcon and Tiercel (still holding the food) are bowing to eachother. The Tiercel then poped onto the edge of the scrape, then back in. He then stood there, not bowing to the Falcon. After a few seconds he decided not to part with his food and flew off with it. Poor Falcon!

15.34 Tiercel is back on the tower with food. Falcon is still on the scrape, looking around and now sitting on the scrape, digging.

Hi.....First of all a big thank you to Nick Moyes and Nick Brown for a very enjoyable and educational talk (Communicating with the Birds) this afternoon. It was good to meet Craig (my better half is Pete), Val and her husband (sorry don't know his name). Mr and Mrs P played to the audience with a display of affection...bless. Look forward now to the next 3 months Thanks again Nick.. Mo and Pete Cole xxx

Ed Drewitt tells me that the pair that nest in Bath have three eggs already!Maybe ours will be early too this year? Time will tell.....Good to see them mating again today while we were on the green.Nick B (DWT)Ps. Thanks to Craig and Mo for your kind comments to NM and NB - to NM especially of course.

Looks like a good clear sky toninght for both Nottingham and Derby. No Peregrines in sight.

But the moon is out and I recommend going out with your binoculars/telescope or just your eyes to look up at it. Tonight the moon will be something like 30% bigger than normal because it's at a close point in its orbit. Looks lovely.

They were both in the nestbox briefly a couple of minutes ago, the falcon in the scrape and the tiercel inspecting the cache on the rhs. Tiercel had his beak open looking towards the falcon as if calling to her.

Mrs. F. seems to be spending more time on the scrape/ scrape ledge. She's perched there now, looking up expectantly or maybe just cautiously. I'm beginning to feel a bit impatient for something to happen!

Hi everyone, I see we are getting ready for the new season. I guess if there was mating seen on the 11th. Then there should be an egg laid anytime now. Is this correct? Maybe about 20th 21st.? How is everyone?

Hi Annie, thanks for your welcome back. Much appreciated. You were so lucky to catch the birds. Soon the action will begin I am sure. Saw some recent kill on the tower camera earlier on to-day. Are there many people hanging around the Cathedral yet? Well lets hope it's a really good and exciting season. Good luck everyone with catching the action on the cameras.

Joy: Tony is Tony Grantham, the Head Verger at the cathedral. He has been a very keen and helpful supporter of this project from the outset....we wouldn't have succeeded without his enthusiasm and willingness sort out solutions to a range of logistical problems along the way.Nick B (DWT)

Joy: Tony is Tony Grantham, the Head Verger at the cathedral. He has been a very keen and helpful supporter of this project from the outset....we wouldn't have succeeded without his enthusiasm and willingness sort out solutions to a range of logistical problems along the way.Nick B (DWT)

Hi Ann and everybody else - it is good to be back at the start of a new season. I have been keeping an eye on things over the winter months but am now back to viewing regularly with a vengeance and am looking forward to the arrival of another set of tiny beaks and watching another successful year!

@ Craig:No problem getting the page or tab, but all that shows is a blank rectangle with a tiny square in the top left corner. Inside that square is a red cross. What am I doing wrong, or do I need an add-on or a plug-in? (whatever they may be, I'm not computer-literate!)

Sorry I'm not a computer expert and not sure if I can answer your problem. The webcam they have looks like it's coming into Windows Media Player. Do you have that programme installed on your computer, you should have it's a default Windows programme?

Perhaps you can screenshot your webbrowser with that problem and post it onto Flickr, I'll have a look but as per above, I'm no expert.

In answer to your problem . The page should show "buffering" below the screen. This should be automatic and screen will load. Just leave it a minute and I hope you will then see it. Yes there is just one egg

Looking at my post (above, 11 March 2011 18:08), if they are as consistent as the last two years, and splitting the difference between those two ‘first’ eggs, I reckon tonight’s the night, and we’ll get the first one around 1.15 in the morning. If its anywhere near that, I claim my fiver!

This time last year I was off sick from work and not sleeping. Watching for eggs in the wee small hours kept me amused. This year I'm fine and grudge the time I have to spend at work as it interferes with my peregrin watching! Hello to all me you joining for the new season.